Lazarus
Jesus wept. John 11:35 · Berean Standard Bible
Jesus wept.
The shortest and perhaps most powerful verse in the Bible. God in human form, standing at the grave of someone He loves, crying.
The narrator records Jesus' tears in two simple words.
Two words that tell you everything you need to know about who God is. He doesn't stand above your grief. He enters it. He weeps with you.
'Edakrysen ho Iēsous'—the shortest verse in Scripture. The verb 'dakryō' (to shed tears silently) differs from the loud wailing (klaio) used for Mary and the Jews, suggesting controlled but genuine grief.
The distinction between dakryō (quiet tears) and klaio (audible weeping) is significant: Jesus does not wail with abandonment but weeps with the dignified grief of one who both shares human sorrow and possesses the power to overcome it.
The narrator records Jesus' weeping in the most concise and powerful description possible.
The brevity of the verse amplifies its power: the Son of God weeps at the grave of His friend, demonstrating that divine power does not exclude divine empathy. Jesus enters fully into the human experience of grief.
33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.
34“Where have you put him?” He asked.
35Jesus wept.
36Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”
37But some of them asked, “Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind also have kept Lazarus from dying?”
Read all of John 11 — Jesus weeps at a tomb. Then He calls a dead man out of it. The shortest verse in the Bible and the most powerful — separated by minutes.
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